The Friendship Consolation
by Princess Shania
Summary: Takes place during when Leonard was dating Priya. A lonely, depressed Penny drinks in her apartment, wondering where her life went wrong, when help comes in an unlikely form.. I own nothing! Except this story of course.


**I'm on a one-shot kick tonight. You'll have to excuse me.**

Penny wasn't unhappy. No, if he didn't consider her a friend, that was fine. She didn't care. She knocked back what remained of her beer and reached for another can. She could feel tears streaming down her face. She pushed them away fiercely. They weren't sad tears, she told herself. She was fine. These were _ happy_ tears.  
But, _happy_? Happy over _what_? The one man she ever felt respected by was shacking up with a jewel of a woman who was more in his league, Sheldon didn't seem to need her anymore, she couldn't look Raj in the eye without being reminded of Priya, Amy was starting to like that _bitch_, and Howard had proposed to Bernadette without her even being there. Sheldon had said he'd said 'I can't think of a better time than when I'm with all my friends'. She'd even lost _him._  
She started sobbing, ugly hacking coughs of despair. How had this happened to her? What had she done? What had she not done? She was vaguely aware of a figure outside the door. She had perfect view of any feet that may be on the other side, from where she was half-lying on the floor. Then a figure appeared.  
She hoped it was Leonard. Hoped it would be him, coming to her, helping her, kissing her, loving her like he used to. It wasn't. It wasn't Raj, it wasn't Sheldon, it wasn't Amy, it wasn't Bernadette. It wasn't Priya, thank God. It was Wolowitz.

"What?" she snapped.

"I could hear you crying."

He switched on the light. The brightness flooded her eyes, making her wince. All the crying had given her a headache. He walked over to her and crouched down.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

He wasn't fooled. He reached under her arms and hauled her to her feet, stumbling under her weight. He then guided her to her couch, throwing the crap she had on it off and making her sit down. Going to her fridge, he came to her, bearing a cold bottle of water. She didn't want it, but he held it to her lips. Eventually, she took a slurp and then grabbed hold of it, sucking down greedily. It helped. The cool liquid soothed her throat and calmed the raging pain in her head,.

"I just feel so damn lonely." she admitted.

"Why?"

"Because Sheldon's got Amy, and Amy likes Priya and Priya is dating Leonard and..." she broke off, sobbing again.

"Are you jealous of Priya?"

"Yes! And I'm so angry with myself for letting Leonard go. And I'm losing everyone around me and it sucks, because there's nothing I can do."

"Penny, you're not losing any of us." Howard put an arm around her, doing his best to make the act of comfort un-sleazy.

"Well, you proposed to Bernadette with your _friends _as witness. Where was I?"

"Oh, Penny. I wasn't going to propose in front of them at first. I had three plans of proposal set up. I was going to put the ring in a glass of wine, but then I read about some guy who accidentally killed his girlfriend that way. Then I decided I'd put it in a cupcake, but my mom sneezed on it before I could. The third plan was to propose in a restaurant, but she was too tired to go out to eat. I was tired of waiting."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Of course you're my friend."

She placed her head on his shoulder and sighed. "I wish I'd hung onto Leonard."

"Hey, good things come to those who wait." Howard told her.

"Who told you that?"

"You did."

"Oh, yeah."

"We care for you so much, Penny. You've been in our lives and looked out for us so long, how could we not?"

"Thanks."

"You wanna come over to 4A? We're having pizza."

"OK. Just let me get showered first."

He didn't want to leave her, but reasoned that she wasn't so drunk that she'd fall and drown while showering. She wrapped her arms around him briefly, not knowing what else to do.

"Thanks, sweetie. You really helped."

**I felt so sad for Penny during seasons 4-5. I know what it's like to feel your friends are backing out on you and considering that they've had like one friendship episode (which I refuse to talk about ever, unless an argument sprigs up), it's a Howard/Penny friendship fic! Hope you enjoyed!**

**Love from Shania. xx**


End file.
